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Friday, September 7, 2012

I am loving that two of our three kids are old enough (5½ and 3½) to have family movie nights together- I have read about these on lots of blogs and always thought how fun it would be when we can finally have our own! We've watched a few movies so far (along with the obligatory bowls of pop corn) so I thought I'd share them with you- I asked the girls to help choose a rating for each movie. I really like old fashioned movies and movies from books so that's what we've been mostly watching so far, with a few new ones as well.

Mary Poppins 9/10- Both girls loved this and I absolutely loved that a movie made in 1964 could still captivate my girls today (can't wait to go to the musical in Auckland soon too!!)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 8/10- we watched both the original Gene Wilder version and the new version with Johnny Depp- both the girls and me enjoyed the original more- I think younger children sometimes prefer less special effects maybe??!!

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 7/10-this was a great movie with a neat story line- loved the children in the film and the whole other era of when the movie was set- the girls did follow the story and enjoyed most of it but did not like the 'child catcher' at all (there were tears) so might be better for older children!

Fantastic Mr Fox 5/10
This was one of my favourite books when I was little..however I thought the movie was a real disappointment- the style of the movie was way over the heads of my girls and neither hubby or I really enjoyed it either!

The Lorax 6/10

The girls enjoyed this movie but I wasn't that fussed on it- it felt like a pretty simple story really dragged out in movie form to me (haven't read the story though)

Toy Story 8/10-we all really enjoyed this movie- so clever and I love the characters of each toy especially the dinosaur :)

The Smurfs 7/10
We all enjoyed this movie although there are a few 'scary bits' if you have young children...The Borrowers 7/10- this was a great family filmBee Movie 9/10-This is nearly our favourite movie- me and the girls loved it- Jerry Seinfeld was the perfect choice for Barry Bee. Great story line and we loved the music too.The Muppets 10/10
Our favourite so far! This is such a great movie for kids and adults to enjoy together, and the music really makes it so memorable and fun to watch. It has been so neat to see the kids getting into the muppets songs and we've been watching some of the old Muppets series on DVD which has been fun too. (Going to write a separate post about The Muppets soon!)

If you have any family movies to recommend please leave a comment as I'd love to find out about more, especially kids or family movies that have stood the test of time!Megan x

PS: Finding the original movie posters for this post reminded me about the website 'AllPosters.com' - I used it years ago to buy the 'Amelie' movie poster that I got block mounted. I love vintage/retro movie posters so I'm thinking one of the ones above would look so cool in the girl's bedroom- although I think the one they would really love is this muppets one! A fun christmas present maybe...Muppets movie poster at All Posters.com

I commented on your facebook page already with a couple, and then just remembered another one - the Sound of Music. I must admit I never liked it when I was little, but after randomly singing a couple of the songs with the girls, and you-tubeing a few of the scenes, we watched the movie and really enjoyed it!

PS... family movie nights are AWESOME!! So glad my girls are finally getting big enough for some of that fun stuff too!

I remember crying at the child catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang when I was about 6! I haven't seen the Lorax either, but to be honest the story does drag on a bit too - though I gather they diverge quite a lot from it anyways (but decided to keep that aspect obviously!).

The second Toy Story is possibly even better than the first, my daughter thinks so for sure. I'd recommend the original Muppets tv episodes if you want the real charm of the characters, definitely a hit in our house. Hazel also loves the Hayao Miyazaki cartoons, My Neighbour Totoro especially, but also Kiki's Delivery service. They're lovely, gentle films with very little scary and a lot of funny - I think I love them as much as Hazel. Up was also well received though there are a couple of slightly scary (very slightly) scenes. She also enjoyed the original Dr. Doolittle and G-Force with the guinea pigs (surprisingly so did I!)

Ohhh you have to have swiss family robinson! How they made that tree house out of stuff round that island and from the sunken ship - so resourceful! And those coconut bombs and tiger trap... again resourceful... possibly the pirates are a little scary for littlies though? Jenny :)

Maddy is too little to do this with yet (only 2 years old) but I so look forward to our future family movie nights too. I've been collecting my childhood favourites to watch when she gets bigger. Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the original Willy Wonka are some of my favourites! But some of the other titles I have stashed away are Bedknobs and Broomsticks (I remember the ending being a little scary when I was small), Annie, Anne of Green Gables (might be better when they are a little older), Alice in Wonderland (original Disney version), The Parent Trap (might be better when they are a little older), Pollyanna, Oliver, Lady & the Tramp (original Disney version), Beauty & the Beast (original Disney version), The Wizard of Oz and The Sound of Music.

I hope that adds some inspiration to your list. Oh how I look forward to movie nights when Maddy is older :) Penny x

Bambi is one of our favorites, although has the odd scary part. The bbc planet earth series is also fantastic family viewing - narrated by David Attenborough - we own the set and it gets many viewings.

We are all about Star Wars right now but before that their favourites were WALL-E, all three Toy Story films and... sigh... Alvin and the Chipmunks. I can't wait until Miss 5 is old enough that we can do the grownup musicals like West Side Story and Singin' in the Rain! I will have to get The Borrowers out as I used to love the books :)

A good story is everlasting...I'm 'old' and still love 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'..now they've seen the scarey part they can close their eyes through it next time..'til it gets easier..'cos the rest of it is too lovely to put on hold. I also still adore 'Mary Poppins' and 'Sound of Music'. Sounds like you're in for some fine evenings of fun at your place from now on.

Oh, lovely! Eee! Esky OFTEN asked us to skip over sections of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (even the spies chasing the family frightened her -- forget the child catcher -- whom I skipped altogether), but I could tell she enjoyed other parts. Such a charming movie. Mary Poppins is next on my list for that rainy / sick night we need a snuggle solution. We haven't seen the new Muppet movie, but I'm so excited about it -- great to hear you all enjoyed it! I went into Fantastic Mr Fox expecting a movie made for adults, and so maybe that was part of why I wasn't disappointed? Thoroughly enjoyed! Esky really likes the latest Winnie the Pooh movie...perhaps not your thing, but I love the music and humour a lot more now than when I was a kid...so ya never know! ;) The Waterhorse is another surprisingly good family movie, and I agree with The Sound of Music recommendation! We here all love Singin' in the Rain too (Haki included).

great post..my boys always love anything by Pixar (monsters inc. a firm fave). Mine are 8, 10 and 12 now so I (foolishly) thought we could throw in the odd 12 rated film, you know, something we might all enjoy. I can confirm that The Woman In Black is NOT a good idea. Gb was up twice with nightmares (The GUILT!). The answer to my rhetorical question 'it's a 12, how scary can it be' is VERY SCARY!!fee x

We love family movie nights too - and it looks like you have the same movie taste as us! My kids had tears after the chitty chitty bang bang child-snatcher too! But the rest of the movie is awesome - and the Muppets are big in our house at the moment too - love singing along with those songs myself! Here are a couple of others that we have loved:PollyannaUpNapoleon - hard to find but it's an Australian-made movie for younger chlidren about a Labrador puppy (they use real animals) - very cool and not sad.Madeleine (with the 12 little girls in 12 straight lines)Road to Avonlea (series of stories)The Wilderness Family (fantastic movies from the 70's, but you can only get them from Amazon).Just a few that I can think of from the top of my head that are great for younger children.

fantastic Mr fox - such a disappointment the movie doesn't really even follow the same story as the book. I was so glad we watched it before showing it to the boys (which we then didn't do!) The Lorax is a fantastic book I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on that but the book is one of our favs great recommendations.

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